Feliz Dia de Los Padres!

Many of my gifts that I bought in Antigua this past Friday were for my Dad for his Father's Day Present. I just wanted to post this picture of us during church today with him in his new Guatemalan shirt! He absolutely loved it!

BC made it back to States!

I made it back to the states! After sitting in the airport for 5 hours and waiting for a delayed plane, I finally landed in the States at 9 PM! It was a good flight minus the slight delay, though. God was definitely working yesterday and I know from personal experience. I ended up sitting by a lady who is from Douglasville (my hometown)....how crazy is that! We talked for a long time on the flight about the mission work each of us is doing and about ourselves and lives in Douglasville. She is from Puerto Rica and is filled with Christ's spirit. She told me how she volunteered at the Pregnancy Resource Center in Douglasville and how they were in need of more spanish-speaking volunteers to help out since the Hispanic population in Douglasville is growing. She asked me to pray about it to see if I felt like God was calling me to volunteer there. She said that she sees God at work in women in crisis all the time and it's such a blessing to be a volunteer there. I'm thinking that this might be an answer to an unspoken prayer of mine. You see, recently, I've really been into working anywhere where I can use my Spanish and keep it up. I've already been blessed with two jobs where I can speak spanish 50% of the time. Maybe this is another one of those opportunities. I would just ask, if you would, please pray for me as well, at this time of decision. And it may be that this was only an "intro" into what kind of work I may be doing in the future or maybe God's calling me to volunteer there in the near future. But whatever comes out of yesterday's encounter, I truly thank God for being present at every second of my life and giving me awesome opportunities to share his love.

Go Dawgs!

I got a picture of Giovani in his UGA sweatshirt last summer, but I brought my UGA sweatshirt this time hoping that I could get a picture of the both of us with them on. And tonight was the night! I walked in the Comedor and discovered that we were both (coincidentally) wearing our sweatshirts! Go Dawgs!

Antigua!

Some of the interns and I in Antigua!


I wasn't expecting to get to go to Antigua on this trip to Guatemala, but I did. Daniel, Kara, Danelle (one of the interns who was going to Antigua for language school), and I drove up there today. After dropping Danelle off at her host home, Daniel and Kara took me out to lunch at Café Condessa. It was really good. I got a strawberry-orange juice smoothie that was in a huge glass and was very yummy. I also had a white bean-garlic puree sandwich with spinach. It was pretty good too! After lunch, we went to the bank to change my money and then headed to Los Mercados where we met up with the other interns! I bought a lot of cool stuff, a majority of them were Father’s Day presents (P.S. Dad I think you're going to be excited). After a few hours of shopping, Daniel, Kara, and I headed back to Villa Nueva. On our way through Guatemala City, however, we stopped at Hiper Paiz and got chocobananas with nuts. It is probably the best tasting thing I’ve eaten on this trip! YUM!

Happy Birthday Rebeca!

We celebrated Rebeca's 13th birthday today at dinner! Rachel made her pineapple upside down cakes that were absolutely delicious! The top picture is the card I made for her. I tried to make it look like the High School Musical 2 poster...emphasis on the word "tried". I have no idea if she realized that was what I was going for, but hopefully she liked it!

This is too precious not to post!

I know I've already had a post on Josue's birthday, but I just got my hands on the video footage of all of us singing to him and it's absolutely precious!

Pizza with the older boys!

We baked pizzas with the older boys tonight. You would have thought that the amount of clean up afterwards would be a lot less than we had after the little boys last night, but we were mistaken. I think they may have made a bigger mess than the little ones! But it was ok, we had a total blast and the pizza was super delicioso!

Meet Yak!

Ruben, one of the boys at the home, has a pet baby iguana. His name is Yak, and I got to meet him the other day. I didn't think he was real at first until Ruben tried to put him on me and he moved! The little black string you see in the pictures below is Yak's leash!!!!



I don't think Astrid is into pet iguanas!

Bienvenidos a la cena de los Panqueques!

Last night we had a special pancake dinner for the boys! They ate A LOT of chocolate chip pancakes with syrup, honey, and peanut butter on top. And then they had brownies for dessert! Talk about a sugar overload....there's no telling what time they all fell asleep! It was definitely a bit crazy...just imagine 11 little boys running around one little apartment room. Oh goodness! But we had a blast and the interns and I definitely slept well last night!

Randy helped out with stirring the pancake mix

Rachel with Juan David

Eliseo and his placemat (we made all of the little boys placemats with their names on them)

Eliseo really enjoyed his pancakes!

Rebecca with Javier and Eliseo

Danelle with Sammy, Josue, and Randy

You have no idea how hard it was to get all of the little boys to take this picture! We got really lucky!

A morning with Jorgito!

Yesterday morning, Rebecca (one of the interns) and I attempted to entertain Jorgito. We watched The Incredibles and colored. After the movie Jorgito and I walked around for a little while and played on the playground! I just love this little kid!

Pics from today!

Kara and I at lunch. We stopped for lunch in between grocery shopping at ClubCo and Hiper Paiz!

I found another Doblebanana in Guatemala! How do I get so lucky?

Rony and Michelle

Look how precious Michelle looks after her bath! So cute!

Mambo's back, alright!

Look who was at church today! YES!

Oh Jorgito!

Jorgito is one of the newest little ones at the home! He is so cute, sweet, and precious, and I'm really enjoying getting to know him during my time here!

Happy 8th Birthday Josué!

This post is just for Josué in honor of his 8th birthday! We had lots of fun celebrating with him tonight, and I really think he enjoyed his cake, cards, and present!
Josué and I on the way to church this morning

This is the picture Josué took of himself without my help!:)

Josué and his yummy birthday cake!

Wendy with Josué and his cake!

B got creative with her camera today!

A Morning at McDonalds

As a reward for good grades, some of the kids got to go to McDonald's this morning for breakfast! Some of the interns and I got to tag along! We had a great time and a delicious breakfast!

Day 3

Today was filled with many fun times! I played cards with Juan David, read with some of the little boys, watched (or attempted to watch) a Veggie Tales video with Jorgito who has the chicken pox, got my nails painted by Delia, watched Francis pick lice out of Sheila's hair, and won a game a Gotcha (it's a basketball game)! Here are some pictures from today! :)

Josue and Randy

Me with my new friend, Randy!

Randy pretending to sleep

Pobre Jorgito! Chicken pox are no fun!



And we celebrated Kevin's 12th birthday today!

Lots of fun at the girls' house!

I spent my afternoon and evening with the little girls! We had fun coloring pictures, and right before I left I watched Eslin give some of the girls haircuts!

Jessica and I ate suckers that turned our tongues blue today!

Angie just chilling on the table enjoying her sucker!

Gracias D!

Here's a picture of me and the cutest baby EVER (Michelle)! I got to hold her while the kids bombarded Kara with birthday cards and hugs last night before dinner! :) And thanks to Daniel for snapping this photo last night!

I'm here!

I made it safely to the children's home and am already having tons of fun! (the internet has been down so that is why my first blog is delayed!) :) It's so great to be back here and be with everyone at NLCH! I have missed all of them so much! I met the new little ones yesterday (Jorge, Oscar, Iris, Randy, and Michelle) and they are as precious as can be! I've already gotten to play Go Fish and War with Sammy and Juan David, eaten a fair share of corn tortillas (YUMMY!), help dry dishes, help Patti make tortillas, and color with some of the kids. I've yet to eaten a chocobanana (chocolate bananas), though. I'm hoping I can get one soon because I'm craving them! :) I haven taken many pictures yet, but here is one that I took last night while I was playing cards with Sammy and Juan David!

BC is going back!

I'm headed back to Guatemala for 10 days (I'm leaving Wednesday morning), and I thought I would keep my blog again to let you all know what's going on at the children's home! :) Keep checking back for new posts!